Hungry, August 17: In spite of government claim to have succeeded in checking starvation death ,a woman jumped in the well along with 3 children.
The woman has survived but her three kids are dead. The mother and her three children were hungry allegedly for a week.
A mother along with her three children jumped into the well to allegedly commit suicide after going hungry for seven days at Harlagora village in Bokaro district of Jharkhand.
SP Saket Kumar Singh said Laxmi Devi (34), a resident of Harlagora village lost her two daughters, aged 8 and 5 years and a six month old son after she jumped with them into the well.
The woman attempted to commit suicide as she had nothing to feed her children for last one week, he added.
The SP said that the villagers have rescued Laxmi Devi but the children have drowned. The bodies were fished out of the well.
India is failing its rural poor with 230 million people being undernourished which is the highest for any country in the world. Malnutrition accounts for nearly 50% of child deaths in India as every third adult between age group15-49 years is reported to be weak due to starvation.
India ranks 94th in the Global Hunger Index of 119 countries, according to a UN report.
Brought out by the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), the report points to some staggering figures. More than 27% of the world’s undernourished population lives in India while 43% of children (under 5 years) in the country are underweight. The figure is among the highest in the world and is much higher than the global average of 25% and also higher than sub-Saharan Africa’s figure of 28%.
More than 70% of children (under-5) suffer from anemia and 80% of them don’t get vitamin supplements. According to the report, the proportion of anemic children has actually increased by 6% in the past six years with 11 out of 19 states having more than 80% of its children suffering from anemia.
Percentage of women with chronic energy deficiency is stagnant at 40% over six years with the proportion in fact increasing in Assam, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Haryana during the same period.
–Agencies